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How You Start is How You Finish? The Slave Patrol and Jim Crow Origins of Policing (www.americanbar.org)

submitted 1 year ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

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Though history books may say otherwise, policing in the United States has its roots in the slave patrols in the South. The institution of policing, and the larger justice system, must reconcile its past in order to evolve away from its racist roots.

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[–] [email protected] 7 points 1 year ago (5 children)

So, I just read the article.

Which line of it "pretends" policing didn't exist before the American South?

Because I'm not seeing what you're claiming.

[–] BombOmOm 6 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (4 children)

The first line: "Jim Crow Origins of Policing"

Police and law enforcement have existed ever since laws existed. We have millennia of history of policing before Jim Crow came into being. Jim Crow demonstrably is not the origin of policing.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I'm with you. I expect something closer to literal accuracy before I take a statement seriously. It's rather like being told that the phrase "defund the police" does not mean to actually defund the police. The fight against racism in policing is not helped with this type of purely metaphorical speech.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 year ago

Counterpoint.

The article was clearly referring to American police, and pretending it was referring to the entire history of law enforcement is pedantic to the extreme.

Also, defund the police.

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